Pockets of heavy rain, isolated thunderstorms and gale force winds will be spreading around parts of NZ for today, Wednesday and Thursday as low pressure drops down over the country from the sub-tropics.  Interacting with high pressure departing – and then incoming new high pressure – we’ll see a burst of East to North-East winds today and tonight, followed by a surge of gale South to South-West winds on Thursday (strongest around the lower North Island).

Rain bands will be messy – meaning some of those downpours may be hit and miss for some.
Not all regions are affected – especially those in the lower third of the South Island, where a colder southerly flow is about to kick in.

But by Friday and this weekend in comes a high pressure zone as big as Australia – and that looks set to bring a settled first week of May to most, if not all, parts of New Zealand.

We have your forecast through to Monday of next week.